What are the best settings when exporting for the web?

[Mike Velte]

Use the “WM9 NTSC 1024K Download” preset of Windows media format. That is pretty high bitrate for cable/dsl connections but the short length should require just a short buffer time.

[Shayne Weyker]

I assume you want maximum quality in minimum file size. With 2 minutes length you might need to go under 1024kbs depending on your audience (especailly if any of them have slow machines and 56K modems), and your webhost’s disk space quota and bandwidth limits.

If your project is made up of animated stills with no or almost no interlaced sources then I suggest doing File > Export Movie out of PPro at 24 frames per second, progressive (24p), 720×480 (or whatever your project’s resolution was), uncompressed AVI.

Then exit PPro and use the use the standalone Windows Media Encoder (available free at download.com) to encode the uncompressed AVI outputing a
24p
320×240
512kbs
movie with audio quality no higher than you need (voice and low-fi music are fine with FM-quality audio).

Be sure to max out your quality in WME under options > performance.

Here’s a sample of a 512kbs 320×240 24 fps progressive WMV file done with the above process, based on some stills of varrying size.

https://www.belmontconferencecenter.com/images/PicturesMovieWMV.wmv

–Shayne

[Daniel Haskett]

Hi there

I was just wondering is WMV the best format to compress it with then? Only I prefer quicktime, when I go to websites like studioaka.co.uk and all their work is in quicktime, its just generally easier to access and I like how you can incorporate it into a webpage…?

Thanks for the help!

Dan

[Mike Velte]

Two strikes against QT;
1. QT videos will play only in a QT player which the target must install from the Apple website…it is not easy.
2. QT video must be encoded with Soreneson’s professional codec to have near comparable efficiency with Windows Media Video. This codec costs about $300 or comes with Squeeze ($350).

If your target is media or creative folks then QT is fine, but most other folks dont have the QT player.